Towson University Investigates Compliance with Sex Discrimination Laws after Dc Rabbi's Arrest

Daily Journal
October 23, 2014

http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/d1428cdca4934b9992df8c4a8ef114b3/DC--Rabbi-Arrested/

Towson University has launched an internal investigation into whether it complied with federal sex discrimination laws after learning a rabbi who teaches there invited students to take ritual baths at his District of Columbia synagogue.

The school also began more aggressive efforts to find current and former students of 62-year-old Barry Freundel, who has been charged with six counts of voyeurism after police found a clock radio with a hidden camera in the shower area of a ritual bath at the Kesher Israel Congregation in Georgetown. Police say at least six women were taped changing clothes, and that Freundel was captured on tape setting up the recording device.

Police have not said whether any of the recordings show Towson students, and school spokesman Ray Feldmann said the university will not publicly reveal if any had come forward.

Freundel's attorney, Jeffrey Harris, declined to comment on specifics of the allegations Thursday.

"He's pleaded not guilty and we stand by that plea," Harris told The Associated Press. "That says it all."

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Freundel has been suspended from teaching and barred from the campus grounds north of Baltimore. His congregation, where he has been for more than 25 years, also suspended him.

School spokesman Feldmann said the internal inquiry was to determine whether the school violated provisions under a federal law that bans behavior that creates a hostile environment.

If Towson self-reports any infractions, the federal government could then launch its own investigation into the university's dealings with Freundel and whether the faculty failed to examine any previous claims of wrongdoing.

Several students and an assistant have told The Post that many students accepted Freundel's invitation to use the bath, called a mikvah and used for sacred rituals.

Although Towson officials had said the trips to the synagogue were inappropriate and unapproved, they said Wednesday that the excursions may have been tacitly approved because department heads in the College of Liberal Arts had encouraged faculty to "provide outside-the-classroom learning opportunities."

"For a religious studies class, a trip to a synagogue where the professor is also a rabbi would not necessarily be problematic," Feldmann said. "However, if those students were offered a mikvah shower or bath as part of that class trip, that would certainly have raised a red flag with the university as being inappropriate or creating the appearance of impropriety."